To some special mothers

It feels a little cliche to write a blog post on Mother's Day about my mothers, especially because I hope they already know how much I love and appreciate them.  I decided instead to offer a little tribute to the other mothers in my life.  They say it takes a village to raise a child, and I think that's true for many reasons, not the least of which is that it also takes a village to be a mom!  Two plus years into this motherhood thing and I cannot imagine doing this without the love, help, and encouragement of my fellow mom friends.  I'm not going to include any pictures or names of specific people here because there are too many, but please know that if you are my friend and you are a mom, these words of appreciation are for you.

When Hubby T and I started attending our church almost five years ago, we quickly joined a small group that was just forming.  Although most of the couples in the group had started having kids we weren't the only ones who hadn't.  Those first couple years before our son came along were full of amazing opportunities to witness, experience, and learn about pregnancies, births, and the joys and heartaches of young children.  All of those friends were there to support us when we started down the parenthood path, and continue to be there for us to this day.  Once I started staying at home, I also joined a play group, where I haven't formed as many close relationships but its still been extremely valuable...sometimes it feels like we get together just because us moms need the company more than our kids do!  And thanks to the wonders of Facebook, I've been able to keep in touch with friends who geographically are no longer part of our regular daily life, yet we remain connected to each others families.  Whether they are near or far, I cannot overstate how valuable the fellowship of other moms has been to me.

So thank you to each and every mom friend out there for being you and sharing your motherhood journeys with me.  Thank you for the hand-me-downs, for getting us through the blur of Little B's newborn weeks, for the subscriptions to parenting magazines, for pushing "like" on Facebook or commenting on a blog post to validate and share my parenting experiences, for playing with us on rainy days, for sharing the joys and struggles of your older children so that I have a clue what's coming, for demonstrating how to know who your kid is and build activities into their lives that allow them to grow and flourish, for reminding me to love and respect others even when they don't parent as I do, and for all the ways you love my child as your own.  We are all in this together, and I hope that I've been at least a little bit of the blessing to you and yours as you have been to me and mine.  Happy Mother's Day friends:)